You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the sandbox.

This page assumes that you are already familiar with the content on Help:Editing and know how to open a page for editing, change the text on that page, and save your changes.

Below is a quick start tutorial and high-level overview of the wiki markup features that are most commonly used on Feast upon the Word. These tools can be seen implemented on the wiki pages that discuss First Nephi. For more information see Wikipedia's editing help.

Single quotes. A single quote before and after a bracket '[' (or any other character) will cause that bracket to appear as a text character without being activated by the wiki software. A single quote inserted at the beginning of a webpage address will likewise cause that link to appear as text rather than an active link. Single quotes are used extensively in the examples below. Just pretend that the single quotes are not really there. When copying from these examples, delete the single quotes. A series of two, three, or five single quotes has a different effect as explained below.

Headings.

Notice on the page for First Nephi that there are nine headings. There are also subheadings under the main heading for Discussion.

Open the edit tab on the page for First Nephi and scroll to the bottom of the page to find the editing window. In the editing window, scroll through the page and notice that the headings are indicated by a series of two equals signs '==' at both the beginning and the end. Notice also that the subheadings under Discussion are indicated by a series of three equals signs '==='.

The wiki is capable of displaying several levels of headings. You will rarely, if ever, need to create anything other than a 'level three' heading with three '==='.

One of the design choices in implementing the wiki is to keep the table of contents relatively short and clean. This means that 'level three' subheadings will typically be limited to major topics or sections of text under the heading for Discussion.

Bold. A series of three single quotes tells the wiki to turn on or turn off bold text. Bold text can be used to draw attention to a heading, as here, where it is inappropriate to create a new heading that would show up in the table of contents.

Italics. A series of two single quotes tells the wiki to turn on or turn off italics. Italics is often harder to read on an electronic screen than regular fonts, and is therefore generally avoided. Italics is used for descriptions of the headings in order to help the eye quickly recognize that this text can usually be skipped. Italics can also serve as a substitute for quote marks, such as identifying a word that is to be defined. A series of five single quotes will affect both bold and italics.

Other modifiers. The wiki will implement big and small text, but the design choice on the wiki is to generally avoid using these modifiers. An example of a limited circumstance where it is appropriate to use these modifiers is in reproducing the King James term LORD (L'<'small'>'ORD'<'/'small'>').

Indentation. To indent a paragraph without a leading bullet point, use a colon ':'. A series of three colons will indent three times as far. It is generally easier to read inside the editing window if a leading or indenting colon is followed by a space. See the section below on Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines for more on this subject.

Block quotes. To indent a paragraph on both the left and right margins to form a block quote, begin the paragraph with '<'blockquote'>' and end it with '<'/'blockquote'>'. The block quote can be made to indent further on the left margin by using one or more colons ':' before the '<'blockquote'>' command. Block quotes do not work well with bullets.

Bullets. To make a bullet appear at the beginning of a paragraph, use an asterisk '*'. Two asterisks in a row will provide a bullet that is further indented, but only if it follows with no empty line after a paragraph using one or two bullets. And so on for three asterisks. But you can indent a bullet more reliably by placing one or more colons before a single asterisk. Again, see more below at Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines.

Numbered sequence. To get an indented and automatically numbered sequence of paragraphs, use the pound sign instead of an asterisk. You must likewise leave no empty lines between the paragraphs or the sequence will start over at 1. Again, see more below at Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines.

Unusual characters. You may want to copy and paste these characters:

… ellipses

— N dash

• dot (this is merely a character and does not implement formatting like an asterisk)

Type a pair of brackets '[ ]' where you want the link to appear in your text.

A link has two parts: (1) first the link address, or the target webpage where the link sends uses; and (2) the link name, or the blue text that users click on to activate the link.

Go to the target web page that you want to link to, select (or highlight) the webpage address (or url) in your browser's address window, and copy that webpage address into the clipboard using (Control + C) or (Shift + Delete).

Back in the wiki edit window, paste the webpage address into the space between the two single brackets using (Control + V) or (Shift + insert). This is the link address.

Following the address, type a blank space and then whatever text you want to display as the link name that users will click on to go to the target webpage.

There should be no space between the first bracket and the link address. There should also be no spaces within the link address. The wiki software interprets the first space as the end of the link address. The link name may contain spaces. For example, '[h'ttps://www.lds.org the Church's website]', where 'h'ttps://www.lds.org' is the link address and 'the Church's website' is the link name. You may use single quotes within the link name.

Many discussions on the wiki make constant reference to the text of the LDS scriptures. Most of those references would ideally be linked to that text on the lds.org/scriptures website. If a comment about 1 Ne 3:1-8 begins with a link to that passage, then there is no need to link every time 1 Ne 3:7 gets mentioned within that comment. But it is helpful to link to references outside of that passage, such as 1 Ne 17:3, at least the first time they are mentioned. Just use common sense to distinguish between helpfulness and overkill.

It does take longer to contribute if time is spent creating those links. But links to the scriptural text, once added, add significant value and convenience for the users who read those contributions. While it is hoped that contributors will generally include links to scriptural references, it is nevertheless better to have a contribution without links than to have no contribution at all.

The process for turning a reference into a link is:

Type the reference and enclose it in single brackets '[1 Ne. 3:2-4, 6-8]'.

Go to the webpage at h'ttps://www.lds.org/scriptures on which that chapter is located. Copy the webpage address into the clipboard.

Back in the wiki edit window, paste the webpage address immediately after the open bracket '[' and then insert one space. The reference will now look like '['h'ttps://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/3?lang=eng 1 Ne. 3:2-4, 6-8']'.

If you are linking to the entire chapter, you are done. If you are linking to a range of specific verses within the chapter, you will want to manually add two more things to the webpage address:

You can make the desired verses display as highlighted by adding verse numbers to this link, such as '1-ne/3.2-4,6-8'. There cannot be a space after the comma because the wiki software would interpret that space as the end of the link address.

You can make the desired verses display at the top of the screen by adding a target location. The target verse will display a little too high, so if you want to begin with verse 2 then you should choose verse 1 as the target. Do this at the end of the webpage address. For example, 'lang=eng#1'. If you want to start with verse 1 then you can just omit the target, although the best practice is to use 'lang=eng#primary' in order to skip down past introductory superscripts in some chapters.

The entire completed link should now look like this: '['h'ttps://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/3.2-4,6-8?lang=eng#2 1 Ne 3:2-4, 6-8']'. To summarize, this is cutting and pasting the webpage address with three additions: (1) identifying the verses to highlight within the chapter; (2) identifying a target verse so the desired verses appear at the top of the screen; and (3) adding the link name or verse reference that will appear in the text of your comment and that users will click on to activate the link.

These links are incapable of crossing a chapter boundary because the lds.org website can only display text from a single chapter at a time. When this issue arises, just identify the verses from the earliest chapter. Users will then have to click over to the next chapter on the lds.org website.

Value of internal links. One of the great strengths of an electronic wiki over paper is the ability to develop discussion of a topic in one central location and then to cross reference and scripture chain to that discussion instantly with links. If you have ever edited two different versions of the same document, then you understand the value of developing, editing, and contributing further to a discussion in one single place. Examples of some short comments that link to a more complete centralized discussion can be found at the discussion of 1 Ne 22:19ff. Examples of centralized discussions that then link to other closely related discussion can be found on the wiki pages for First Nephi and 1 Ne. 2:19-24.

How to create internal links. It is easy to create an internal link (or internal hyperlink). Just put the name of the target page inside double brackets: '['['First Nephi']']' or '['['1 Ne 3:7']']'. To clarify: use single brackets for external links; use double brackets for internal links.

Redirect pages

The two most common type of pages on the wiki are commentary pages and redirect pages. Commentary pages display content. Redirect pages operate invisibly. The only thing on a redirect page is an instruction for the wiki software to automatically send users to another target page. Redirect pages play an important role in getting a user to the correct commentary page.

In the search box at the top right corner of the screen, type '1 Ne 3:7'. Notice that the wiki software did not send you to a page discussing only that one verse, but sent you instead to a page covering a much longer passage that includes 1 Ne 3:7. The wiki software was able to do this because the wiki page for 1 Ne 3:7 is a redirect page that tells the wiki software to redirect you to the target commentary page that is now on your screen.

Look for the name of the wiki page in large print near the top left corner of the screen. Just below it you will find a line of small text that says '(Redirected from 1 Ne 3:7)'. Now, in that line of text, click on the blue or purple link for '1 Ne 3:7.' You are finally now looking at the wiki page for 1 Ne 3:7. The arrow at the left indicates that this is a redirect page rather than a commentary page. The only thing this redirect page does is automatically send users to the target page that contains the commentary for a larger passage.

Look in the address bar of your browser, and you will see that the name of the webpage ends with '&redirect=no'. This is what allows you to see the redirect page without being automatically redirected, as you were previously, to the target commentary page.

Open the Edit tab for this redirect page. You are now looking at the wiki code that sends anyone trying to look at 1 Ne 3:7 to the correct commentary page. Notice that the name of the commentary page is formatted as an internal link inside double brackets '[[ ]]'. The word REDIRECT tells the wiki to go to that internal link automatically without waiting to be asked. Without the REDIRECT instruction, this internal link would display, and the user would have to click to activate the link.

Finally, in the search box in the top right corner of the screen, type '1 Ne. 3:7-8'. Notice that this is unproductive. While there is a redirect page for every verse, chapter, and book in the scriptures, there is not - for multiple reasons - a redirect page for every possible combination of verses or chapters.

Linking to redirect pages. You should assume that an internal link to a wiki page covering a specific range of verses or chapters should (almost) ALWAYS link to an individual verse ('1 Ne 3:7'), an individual chapter ('First Nephi 3'), or a book ('First Nephi'). Trust the redirect pages to get users to the correct page that covers that verse or chapter. Please do not link directly to any other page that covers the verse ('1 Ne 3:1-4:30') or chapter ('First Nephi 3-4'). This is why: If the time comes that the wiki page 1 Ne 3:1-4:30 gets too long and must be split, the failure to follow this rule will result in broken links that other people will have to spend time trying to find and manually fix one by one in order to restore the full usefulness of your contribution. On the other hand, links that do follow this rule will migrate where they should just by editing one redirect page for each affected verse or chapter.

A book of scripture may have as many as four or more levels of wiki pages.

At the lowest level, there may be pages that cover only a few verses comprising less than a chapter ('1 Ne 3:1-8'). Links to these pages should follow the rule by linking to a specific verse ('1 Ne 3:7').

Above this there may be a page that covers the entire chapter, or a group of chapters ('First Nephi 3-4'). Links to these pages should follow the rule by linking to a specific chapter ('First Nephi 3').

Above this there may be yet another page that still covers less than the entire book, but covers several chapters that have their own lower level wiki pages ('First Nephi 3-7'). Here, and only here, it is proper to link directly to the wiki page for First Nephi 3-7. This is because a link to chapter 3 would be redirected to the wiki page for First Nephi 3-4, the lowest level page covering substantially of of chapter 3, and this is not where you want the link to go.

At the highest level there is always a page that covers the entire book ('First Nephi'). It is always proper to link to the main page (or front page or top level page) of an entire book.

This rule does not apply to resource pages that are not directly tied to a range of verses or chapters ('Book of Mormon History').

If you spend enough time poking around the edit windows of various pages, you will find that there are a few other exceptions relating to how adjacent pages reference each other, but those exceptions are limited to specific locations on each page that the site administrator knows to look for.

How to name internal links. We saw earlier that the address of an external link such as '['h'ttps://www.lds.org/scriptures LDS Church website']' may not contain any spaces. In contrast, the address of an internal link such as '['['1 Ne 3:7']']' usually should contain blank spaces. Some automatically generated internal links use underline to avoid blank spaces '1_Ne_3:7', but the better practice is to just use blank spaces '1 Ne 3:7'. To clarify: an external link is signaled by single brackets '[ ]' and interprets the first space in the link as marking the end of the link address and the beginning of the link name; an internal link on the other hand is indicated by double brackets '['[ ]']', may contain spaces in the link name, and therefore uses the vertical line character '|' to signal the end of the link address that gets activated and the beginning of the link name that is displayed to the user. For example, '['['1 Ne 3:7 |discussion of 1 Ne 3:7']']'. The '|' character is located on the keyboard between the backspace and enter keys. The '|' may be followed by a blank space, but if the internal link is placed inside parentheses '( )', this will cause an unwanted blank space to display between the opening parenthesis and the link name ( 1 Ne 3:7). Without the '|' character, the address and the name of the internal link are the same, meaning that the user sees and clicks on the actual link address.

External links to scripture text versus internal links to discussion. When you add a link to a scripture reference, please consider whether it is more useful to use an external link to the text of the scripture passage at lds.org, or to use an internal link to a wiki page discussing that verse. While it is easier to create an internal link by just throwing a pair of double brackets around the verse reference, this is often counterproductive when the contributor has not even looked to see if the target wiki page actually contains any discussion of the passage. The link name on which users click to activate an internal link to another wiki page should usually describe the link as a discussion of the passage. If this description does not make sense, then users will probably derive more benefit from a link to the scripture text at lds.org. Examples of both types of link, sometimes right next to each other regarding the very same passage, can be found in the discussion of 1 Ne 22:19-26. It is better not to link a scripture reference at all than to use an internal link that looks intentional but is not, and that will frustrate other users and thereby lower the usefulness of the site until someone takes the time to edit the link.

What anchors do. The term 'anchor' refers to a specific location on a page. Anchors make it possible to send users not only to another page, but to a specific location on that page.

Automatic anchors. The wiki automatically recognizes the top of the page and all headings as anchors. The name of the anchor for a heading is simply the text of the heading. The name of the anchor for the top of a page is 'top'.

Manual anchors.

You can manually create an anchor anywhere on a page by using the following code, placing the anchor's address between the double quotes " ". The following anchor is found on the wiki page for 1 Ne 2:19-24 at the beginning of a comment regarding verses 19-24: '<'div id="covenant-with-nephi"'>'<'/div'>'.

The address of the anchor does not have to match any displayed text. The displayed text can thus be edited without affecting the anchor or the links that point to it. In contrast, editing a heading will cause links to that heading to quit working. Thus, even when a subheading is created, it may still be desirable to create an anchor so that future editing of the displayed text will not result in broken links.

The design choice for this wiki is to not place any text between the >< so that anchors remain invisible. Displaying the name of an anchor between the >< would make it easier for a future contributor to link to the anchor without having to look in the edit window to discover its existence and name. But displaying the name would also increase the likelihood that a future contributor might edit the displayed name to improve readability, which would cause it to be misleading, or try to fix that problem by also editing the anchor's address, which would break all pre-existing links to the anchor. Any text placed between the >< will be followed by a paragraph break.

Embedding the anchor within the comment to which it relates will help to prevent the anchor and comment from becoming separated in the course of subsequent editing. Placing the anchor at the very beginning of a comment makes it easier for future contributors both to find and to avoid inadvertent editing.

Many anchors are named with all lower case letter and with dashes between words instead of spaces. This is not a requirement. But this syntax is suggested because it may help future editors to recognize that this is not displayed text that needs to be edited for readability, or that even can be edited at will, but rather is a specially syntaxed piece of code that needs to be left alone unless they know what they are doing.

The recommended format is thus to begin an anchored comment with an asterisk, followed by a space, then the anchor, and then the text of the comment. For example (bolding omitted here): '*' '<'div id="covenant-with-nephi"'>'<'/div'>' '['h'ttps://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/2.19-24?lang=eng#18 Verse 2:19-24']': The Covenant with Nephi. This Covenant with Nephi is fundamental ...

Not every comment needs an anchor. Anchors can be created as needed when other comments are linked to them.

It is possible to create several anchors that all have the same address or "name" as long as the anchors are not placed on wiki pages that are so close to each other that there is a chance they could be merged. It is also better to select an address that is somewhat distinctive (#atonement-scope rather than just #atonement) to reduce the chance that someone else will inadvertently put another anchor with the same address on the same page.

Linking to anchors.

Links to automatic anchors and to manual anchors both work in exactly the same way.

The link to an anchor begins with a pound sign '#'. For example, a link to the Covenant with Nephi anchor on the page discussing 1 Ne 2:19 would be: '['['1 Ne 2:19#covenant-with-nephi']']'.

You are already familiar with internal links to other pages on the wiki. Notice that this link simply adds a pound sign followed by the address of the anchor.

Notice also that this link is to the redirect page for 1 Ne 2:19. The wiki software is clever enough to first activate the redirect and then, after arriving at the targeted commentary page, finally start looking for the anchor. This is very powerful. It means that links to anchors do not depend on the targeted anchor always remaining on a particular page, such as the page named 1 Ne 2:16-24 where the covenant-with-nephi anchor was initially located. No matter how many times the wiki pages discussing that chapter get split, combined, or rearranged, as long as this anchor stays on the same content page that is targeted on the 1 Ne 2:19 redirect page -- and future editors should not ever disrupt that since the comment clearly identifies itself as relating to verses 2:19-24 -- then the link to this anchor will always continue to work.

To link to an anchor on the same page, simply omit the page reference. For example: '['['#Discussion']']'. If the page is not specified, the wiki assumes that the correct page is the current page.

Links to anchors are case sensitive. Correct capitalization matters.

Tracking anchors. The wiki software cannot (or else the contributors to this page have not yet figured out how to) search for and find anchors. Thus, in order to use an anchor, you must already know that it exists, including its location and its name.

A page has therefore been created at Home > Help:Contents > Help:Anchors. The purpose of that page is to collect a list of the anchors used on the Feast Upon the Word site. This makes it easy to see if there is already an anchored discussion you want to link to, what the name of the anchor is, and where the anchor is located. The list on that list can be searched, like any other webpage, using (Control + F).

A list of anchors is one of the few items on the site that must be tracked manually. You can create anchors without listing them on the Help:Anchors page, but listing them will increase their usefulness to others.

Most p[ages have at the bottom a section for footnotes or endnotes. But while the notes display at the bottom of the page, the text of each note actually resides in the text at the point where the footnote number appears. The wiki software command that makes footnotes appear is: '<'references/'>'. The notes display on the page wherever this command is located. The design choice on this wiki has been to place the notes under a separate heading at the bottom of the page. The notes themselves are inserted in the text between the two commands" '<'ref'>' and '<'/ref'>'. The text of a note may include bold, italics, internal links, and external links. More than fifty examples of notes can be seen by going to the page Old Testament: Historical Overview and clicking on the Edit tab.

Pages will sometimes need to be split when they become too long, or to have their 'page boundaries' adjusted for other reasons. This is a BIG deal. The task can be very time consuming to do correctly and avoid broken links. So if you feel that page boundaries need to be adjusted, please contact the site administrator at the email address described at the bottom of the Home Page. He will try to be responsive, and the task has at times been delegated. But this is a task that should be undertaken only with approval and guidance.

In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column.

What it looks like

What you type

New section

Subsection

Sub-subsection

Generally use third-level headings ===). Do not use first-level headings on this site. Second-level headings on commentary pages are reserved for the four main commentary sections on every page.

Do not skip levels (e.g., second-level followed by fourth-level).

A Table of Contents will automatically be added to an article that has four or more sections.

When linking to a scripture link to an individual verse rather than the article name (e.g. 1 Ne 1:3 rather than 1 Ne 1:1-5).

Internally, the first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended).

This is called a piped link. It is used to create a link by a different name than the name of the article.

When linking to a set of verses link to the first verse (e.g. 1 Ne 1:3 rather than 1 Ne 1:3-9). Linking to more than one verse will only work if those are the verses of the article and is not recommended in that case. Exceptions: built-in links generally refer directly to the article, e.g. redirects from verses to articles and previous and next links on each commentary page.

Look at verses [[1 Ne 1:3|1 Ne 1:3-9]].

In general you cannot create new pages on this site. If you would like to create a new page, please leave a note for the admin on his page

Help:Wiki_markup is this page.

Self links appear as bold text when the article is viewed.

Do not use this technique to make the article name bold in the first paragraph

[[Help:Wiki_markup]] is this page.

When adding a comment to a Talk page,
you should sign it by adding
three tildes to add your user name:

If a URL contains a character not in this list, it should be encoded by using a percent sign (%) followed by the hex code of the character. These can be found in the table of printable characters. For example, the caret character (^) would be encoded in a URL as %5E.

At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the TOC to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting __NOTOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to disappear.